Reviews

VAF: Kodo One Earth Tour 2023: Tsuzumi
March 19, 2023, Chrysler Hall
Review by John Campbell

A lively, expectant capacity audience filled the hall before the lights went down. We sat in darkness and as the lights came up the penetrating, staccato sound of woodblock striking woodblock filled the hall with a powerful rhythm with drum strikes woven in. The sound softened and the rhythm went faster like thousands of crickets out of sync. The sound got louder, then soft again. Next came the sound of a steady rain felt viscerally as four big drums entered with several smaller ones. The drummers moved about as the stage was bathed in soft, pastel light. The sharp drum strikes faded to a faint rumble as if we were hearing the earth itself breathing. The tam-tam (large suspended gong) strikes ended the piece. We'd just witnessed the incomparable Japanese drum ensemble Kodo performing Dyu-Ha, last performed in North America in 1989. The composer, the late Maki Ishi, was introduced to Kodo by conductor Seiji Ozawa.

Drumming has deep roots growing out of centuries of spiritual rituals in Japan. The program listed thirteen pieces and thirteen performers (including two women) and a dozen staff members who brought this spectacular performance to us. From the program: “Kodo's openness to a wide musical spectrum continues to produce startling new fusion and forms to these Heartbeat Drummers of Japan.” Kodo can be translated as “heartbeat” as well as “Children of the Drum.” The Kodo performers live in a retreat-like community established in 1971 on Sado Island in the Sea of Japan some 175 miles from Tokyo. Their first tour was in 1981 (Berlin) and included Dyu-Ha. The highly disciplined individual performers fused into this superb theatrical experience that included costumes, lighting and coordinated movement.

The second piece, Kono Mine no, composed by Yoko Fujimoto (2003) added two flutists, a whistle and a cowbell and a male vocalist to the drums. Yuta Kimura with Masayasu Maeda composed Hayashi-bayashi (2019). It featured three men costumed in blue. Composer Yuta Kimura was one of the dancers. Fans were used as props in rhythm solos. It was all quite lovely. Strings of lanterns were introduced and moved about, highlighting movements. Every object, every drum and every performer was choreographed. The fourth piece, Hitohi (2019) was composed by Masayasu Maeda, with dance arranged by Koki Miura (one of the troupe) . The six dancers, with legs at a wide angle with feet anchored to the floor, swayed to the drum strikes with intense concentration. Single dramatic strikes, shouts and vocal expressions built to intense crescendos, revealing intricate detail within these complex drumming patterns.

Hayate, composed by Ryotaro Leo Ikenaga (2020), with eleven drummers created a depth of sound that I felt in my lower belly. The last two drummers appeared in Zoku (1989), composed by Leonard Eto, with black straps over their bare backs, highlighting the erotic motion of visible shoulder and back muscles.

Intermission over, Monochrome (1976) by Maki Ishi, composer of the opening piece, began very quietly. The tapping on seven small drums gradually got a bit louder like a buzzing of insects— like a swarm of cicadas that subsided, giving way to pounding on large drums. Uchoten (2019), by drummer Yuki Hirata, opened with a single drum but soon dance patterns were formed by the two women and four men all playing intricate patterns of sound. Moving forward, the antics of drummers moving about the stage had the children in the audience laughing. Next came Ayumi (2020) composed by Yuta Sumiyoshi, reminding me of an Irish bagpipe tune with many repetitions.

The three traditional pieces that concluded the program were arranged by Kodo. Some of the vocals were reminiscent of American Indian chants. The O-daiko (big drum, more than three feet across) was played horizontally with two club-like drum sticks. The drummer wore only a loin-cloth and faced the drum with his back to us. Another drummer was on the other side of the drum but we couldn't see him. The musical performances and arduous physical training were on full display as the exhaustive intensity of sound was visible in the muscles of the drummer's shoulders, legs and buttocks. Community was once defined by the distance over which O-daiko could be heard but Kodo today is public-spirited and internationally minded as in the One Earth Tour. The audience was enthusiastically happy to be included in this expanded world.

The drummer played to near exhaustion but sat on the floor in front of one of the three Yatai-bayashi and joined-in once his breathing returned to normal and gave this final piece his all. The image of the other players in their black costumes covered with white triangles on their sleeves and backs and white Japanese language characters on their chests lingers in my mind.

The director was Yuichiro Funabashi. The cast included Eiichi Saito, Jun Jidai, Koki Miura, Ryotaro Leo Ikenaga, Reo Kitabayashi, Mizuki Yoneyama, Yuta Kimura, Yuki Hirata, Taiyo Onoda, Kei Sadanari, Moe Niiyama, Jumpei Nonaka, Hana Ogawa (Junior Member). Thanks to Rob Cross and the Virginia Arts Festival for bringing us this amazing and unforgettable experience.

VAF: Dalí Quartet with Olga Kern
May 10, 2023, Robin Hixon Theatre
Review by John Campbell

There's always a sense of occasion when we attend any of the Virginia Arts Festival events. This is especially true at the intimate, morning Coffee Concerts that offer chamber music in comfortable, smaller spaces by world class performers. Here the sense of anticipation and pleasure is palpable before the music even begins.

In a program of rarities celebrating the 150th birthday of Russian composer Sergei Rachmaninoff (1873-1943), the Dalí Quartet played String Quartet No. 2 (1896) with great enthusiasm and brilliant technique. The very brief Allegro, first movement has a dense, melancholic opening that relaxes into leisurely melodies and ends in triumph. The second Andante movement opens with a somber cello (Jesús Morales) and viola (Adriana Linares) that has been described as a funeral march. Ari Isaacman-Beck, first violin and Carlos Rubio, second violin, join in with a brighter energy. Many musical ideas emerge but the dark ground bass keeps a damper on the happier ones that briefly appear but only as fragments that disappear, yet overall, density does not win out.

Critic Alex Ross says that Rachmaninoff inherited a healthy skepticism for Wagner from his idol Tchaikovsky but he did learn from Wagner how to bathe a Slavic melody in a sonic halo. Certainly that seems to be true in this very incomplete fragment of a string quartet.

Chairs had been moved to give the audience a clear view of the pianist before Olga Kern joined the Dalí Quartet on stage for Sergei Taneyev (1856-1915) Piano Quintet in G Minor, Op. 30 (1911). She told us that they were making history as we were about to hear the first U.S. Performance of this monumental chamber piece. Chaz Stewart's program notes gave background on this little known Russian composer who was a student from age nine at the nascent Moscow Conservatory. He graduated ten years later in 1875. There he studied with Tchaikovsky and premiered his teacher's First Piano Concerto that same year. “The two were close both professionally and romantically.” (Chaz Stuart, 2023). Three years later he reluctantly became professor of theory at Moscow Conservatory which limited his performance travel, though he did premiere all of Tchaikovsky's other works for piano and orchestra in Russia. In the west Taneyev is known as the teacher of Rachmaninoff, Scriabin and Glier, and author of a book on counterpoint and as an excellent concert pianist.

The Penguin Guide to Compact Discs states that the Op. 30 Quintet “is arguably the greatest Russian chamber work between Tchaikovsky and Shostakovich.” The performers were totally engaged, playing with ardor and polish. Again and again, driven intensity gave way to lighter music with a plucked string here and there, but Russian soul and great drama ruled. The second, Scherzo movement came sprightly dancing along like waking on a beautiful spring morning, then getting very busy immediately with piano phrases echoed by the quartet. A slower, reflective section with energy and beauty gave way to a muscular conclusion. This pattern repeated over and over.

The third, Largo movement began with a violin upstroke and off it rushed. Soon a steady tempo and quietude developed with all playing together until the strings faded. Crisp, sweet playing by Ms. Kern was replaced as the strings entered again. Suddenly big, Russian drama repeated, became intense, then quieter until it faded away. The Finale, Allegro vivace movement with power performances hysterically raised the energy level. By this point I was bored and ready for it to be over. It was an interesting, even unique experience but this was just one climax too many. To be fair I'll give Chaz Stuart's program notes the last word: “Much like the languid call-and-response opening to the work, the finale opens with a game of cat and mouse between pianist and strings, but here introducing the drama-filled Allegro vivace finale. The dense orchestration builds into a grand maestoso (majestic) mood, settling into a lyrical middle section, which itself builds into an ecstatic G major finale.”

The performers played superbly but the composer seemed bereft of new ideas. Perhaps that is the reason that his works are so little known in the west. He lacks the whimsy and spontaneity of Tchaikovsky.